Best Books of 2024 (so far!)

Get your TBRs ready...

Alright, we’re officially halfway through 2024 (how?!) and so naturally we’re starting to think about our BEST OF lists. We thought today we’d give you a glimpse of where we’re at in terms of what we loved.

Some notes:

• These books can be both new releases this year OR backlist books (we don’t discriminate around these parts.) But they ARE ones that we read this year.

• These aren’t in any particular order because we need some time to really let these books settle in before we come up with our official lists.

• And, so that this email isn’t 1,000 pages long, we’re giving you the bare bones of a description - but if they are ones we reviewed here on Substack, or on the podcast, we’ll link to where you can hear more about them.

Can you spot two books that are repeated? For the first time (ever??), we have two books that are on each of our top 10 lists! 😱

SARAH’S TOP 10 OF 2024 (so far!)

SANDWICH by Catherine Newman - read the review
Rocky is “sandwiched” between her adult children and her aging parents, not to mention her marriage isn’t in the best shape, and she’s going through menopause. But her family has come together, just as they always do, at a beach house for a week and there they reconnect.

THE OTHER YEAR by Rea Frey - listen to the review
This absolute tearjerker is about what happens when an entire life is changed in an instant. In one life, Kate’s daughter Olivia is pulled under the water at the ocean and never comes up. In another life, she pops back up and life goes on as normal.

MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES by Rufi Thorpe - read the review
The daughter of a former Hooters waitress and a professional wrestler gets pregnant by her married professor and starts an OnlyFans account. Margo is one of those characters you can’t help but root for and this quirky novel is one of the best I’ve read in a long time.

STOLEN FOCUS by Johann Hari - read the review
I fully credit this book with wanting to take a social media break for the summer and also with helping me back to finding the focus in my days. Bonus: Even though the subject matter can be dry, I think Hari did a great job of making the audio version exciting to listen to.

SOCIOPATH by Patric Gagne - read the review
I know there is some controversy surrounding this book but I don’t care, I loved this first hand look at what sociopathy looks like, including the truly crazy things that Gagne has done in her life. And the audio was truly a bit creepy.

THE SAME BRIGHT STARS by Ethan Joella - listen to the review
I can’t have a best of list without my comfort author. Jack is trying to decide if he should sell his family restaurant to a big corporation and step back. But in true Joella form, we meet the (heartwarming) characters that work at the restaurant and why it isn’t quite as simple a solution as it seems on the surface.

FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry - read the review
In Henry’s newest, Daphne and Miles have just been dumped by their respective exes - who are now dating one another. So they, naturally, form a fake dating pact to make their exes jealous and of course, we know where this is going. I always love Henry’s banter and this one had me actually laughing out loud a couple times.

THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES by John Boyne - read the review
Adopted as an infant, Cyril has no knowledge of his birth mom and his adopted family has made it clear that he isn’t a real Avery. We follow Cyril’s life from the 1940s onward as he comes into his own and who he really is at a time when his very existence wasn’t acknowledged in Ireland. This sweeping novel really gets under your skin as you wait to see what will become of Cyril and those in his life.

PIGLET by Lottie Hazel - read the review
Days before her wedding Piglet’s fiance has admitted a betrayal. And now she has to decide if she wants to move forward with the wedding, or seek out what she actually wants (and deserves!) in life. This is one of those books that on the surface doesn’t seem like much until you realize you’re still thinking about it months later.

ONE WAY BACK by Christine Blasey-Ford - read the review
Blasey-Ford bravely tells her side of the story from testifying against Brett Kavanaugh and this memoir had me absolutely enraged through most of it. But I very much appreciate hearing what she had to go through to even speak in front of the world, and how her life has been shaped since - in both good and bad ways.

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MIA’S TOP 10 OF 2024 (so far!)

SHARK HEART by Emily Habeck - listen to the review
This is one of Sarah’s favorite books and she recommended it to me and I’m so glad I read it. It’s about a man who is slowly mutating into a great white shark and the effect that has on his identity and his marriage.

A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS by Paul Tremblay - listen to the review (I actually shared my review on an episode that was exclusive to our podcast patrons, but this link mentions the book as well)
I am a connoisseur of scary books and movies and this book has so many easter eggs and pop culture references about them and I loved it. It’s about a girl who is possessed by a demon (or is she??) and filmed by a reality TV crew. The ending is *chef’s kiss*!

BARE NAKED IN PUBLIC by Christine Amoroso - read the review
Christine is a long-time friend of ours and we’ve been reading, and swooning, over her writing for years! We’re so proud of her for publishing her memoir. She truly bares her heart and soul in this one about her past relationships and it’s so raw and beautiful.

THE HEIRESS by Rachel Hawkins - read the review
This one has so many twists and turns and it was un-put-down-able for me. Childhood kidnapping, multiple marriages, a large inheritance, an heir who wants nothing to do with the money, the greed of other family members… it’s nonstop action.

MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM by Grady Hendrix - read the review
Yes, another book about demon possession, but it’s good, I promise. This one focuses on high school best friends, Mean Girls style, but with some creepy horror thrown in. Listen to the audio if you can - chills galore!

UNPLUGGED by Gordon Korman - read the review
I read this with my boys for a homeschool read aloud and they rated it as their favorite read aloud we’ve ever done so far. It’s middle grade fiction about a summer wellness camp that bans all phones and electronics. Jett, the rich troublemaker, hates everything about the camp, until he finds a lizard in the woods…

THE NEXT RUN by Tom Jenkins - read the review
An action-packed memoir about a college dropout who begins smuggling marijuana from Mexico to the U.S. in the 1960s. My heart was in my throat every time he stopped at the border checkpoint.

MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES by Rufi Thorpe - read the review
The description of this book was weird, and I love weird, but I still didn’t expect to like it so much. It’s about a college student having an affair with her married professor, getting pregnant, deciding to keep the baby, and then creating an OnlyFans account in order to make money and care for her son. But it’s unique and funny and quirky and multi-layered and I devoured this book.

AFTER (THE SERIES) by Anna Todd - read the reviews here and here
I know, I said I wouldn’t talk about this series so much anymore, but I have to because I loved it so much and it consumed so much of my reading life recently (and still is because I’m re-reading them on audio!). Tessa, a very good girl, falls for Hardin, a very bad boy, and their toxic, passionate, emotional relationship goes through many ups and downs.

THE SAME BRIGHT STARS by Ethan Joella - read the review
I really want to hug Ethan Joella. He seems like a really huggable guy and his characters are always so heartwarming. This one is about Jack who has to decide if he wants to keep his family restaurant going or finally retire and sell it to a big corporation that’s buying up all the local eating establishments. But below the surface, it’s about so much more than that.